Dance To The Music

It’s surprising we’re not inundated in a sea of speculation just now -- the usual who’s in and who’s out, and who’s on the thin, usually spherical or hemispherical film of liquid filled with air or gas (bubble). For some reason, though, things have been awfully quiet.

Maybe that makes it all the more timely to review where current ACC members stand historically in getting invited to the NCAA tournament.

Especially in a league where some programs seem to have annual reservations in the event, surely it’s galling to be left out for years at a time. Pending play in the second half of the ACC season, it appears some of the longer NCAA droughts might come to an end.

That’s certainly true in Virginia Tech’s case, where the shutout has lasted for going on a decade. Halfway through the conference schedule, the Hokies were 16-5 with a 5-4 ACC record and wins over Big Ten members Nebraska and Michigan and mid-level league opponents Duke, Georgia Tech and Syracuse.

Both Duke and Syracuse apparently are trending upward after rocky stretches, so those early victories may carry more weight as time goes by. Otherwise Buzz Williams’ team has lost to every ranked team it faced – Florida State, Notre Dame and North Carolina.

BC has changed coaches twice since last making the NCAAs.

Clemson made it in Brad Brownell’s first season and not since, although the Tigers are more often than not in the middle of the ACC pack.

FSU, after hanging with Duke and UNC in total wins over an extended period, hasn’t been to the NCAAs in five years. Georgia Tech was in the Final Four in 2004, but has been back only twice since and endured a pair of coaching changes.

Louisville, facing wrongdoing related to providing athletes with sexual favors, voluntarily skipped the 2016 tournament as self-punishment (though not of the sexual variety). Syracuse did the same, for a different sort of NCAA violation, in 2015.